Toxic Gas Cloud at Simi School Sends 28 Pupils to Hospitals

More than two dozen children from the private Pinecrest School swamped two east county hospitals Friday after a toxic chemical cloud wafted over the school’s pool area during a swimming class.

The poisonous gas was released shortly after 11 a.m. when a maintenance employee at the preschool and academy, in the 4900 block of Cochran Street, accidentally combined chlorine with pool acid, officials said.

The vapor almost immediately caused breathing problems and vomiting among the 28 boys and girls who had assembled poolside after their swimming instruction.

Three school employees were also stricken by the toxic cloud.

While the victims apparently suffered only minor injuries, officials warned parents to watch affected children closely for any lingering respiratory problems.

Exposure to the toxic vapor could lead to respiratory tract infections, including pneumonia, officials said.

“We know that historically, people exposed to hazardous chemicals may have health problems in the future,” said Julie Frey, an administrator with the county’s Emergency Medical Services department. “It could be a month, six weeks, maybe a year. It really depends on how much each person was exposed to.”

The maintenance employee who set off the chemical reaction ran from the fumes and was not affected.

But officials said the children, ages 5 through 10, panicked on smelling the noxious gas and ran through the cloud in an effort to escape.

“The kids were scared and ran through the vapor twice,” said Sandi Wells, a spokeswoman for the Ventura County Fire Department. “They didn’t know why their eyes were irritated or why they were coughing.”

As school officials evacuated the campus, paramedics administered oxygen to the ill students and employees. Seventeen were later transferred to Simi Valley Hospital and 14 to Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks for treatment. One boy who suffers from asthma was transported on life support because he had trouble breathing, Wells said.

All the victims were released by the end of the day, spokesmen at the two hospitals said.

Students not outside when the gas was released were evacuated to Cochran Street Baptist Church next door to the school.

A steady stream of panicked parents arrived to pick up their children--many of whom were inside during the incident.

“Only until I saw my kids’ faces did I know everything was OK,” said Diana Wender as she held her sleepy 3-year-old daughter, Shae, against her chest, and her husband, Joe, held their 4-year-old son, Daniel.

The Moorpark residents, who both work for Farmers Insurance in Simi Valley, said they were eating lunch in the office cafeteria when a family member designated as a contact in the event of an emergency at the school called them with the news.

“My blood pressure shot up,” Diana Wender said.

Choking back tears, Simi Valley resident Mary Salazar said she came back from lunch to her office at Countrywide Home Loan, and her supervisor pulled her aside to calmly tell her there was something wrong at Pinecrest School.

“I was trying to be calm and trying not to be so nervous,” said Salazar, whose 5-year-old son, Alex, attends kindergarten at the school. “I had to see him and see how he is.”

The 30-year-old single mother said she planned to take the rest of the day off to monitor Alex, as officials had advised.

“He’s the only one I have,” she said.

Cori Babcock, manager of the Pinecrest School’s main office in Los Angeles, said most of the company’s schools in Ventura and Los Angeles counties are equipped with swimming pools, but this was the first such incident of its kind.

“It was a very unfortunate incident and we plan to take every precaution and all steps necessary to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Babcock said. “The president, Don Dye, was devastated when he learned of it.”

*

Times Community News reporter Holly J. Wolcott contributed to this report.